Christmastime!!

Little Christmas

On December 1st every year we celebrate Little Christmas. Each of us gives a member of our family a little gift to kick off the season of giving! This year we decided to all make homemade gifts (or most of us....) I made Carley a block with all these notes on it saying the things I love about her! Zack had me and he made me an ornament with all these notes for me around it! And Carley made Zack a homemade snow globe! It was fun to see the things we could come up for each other!

Sugar Cookies and More Sugar Cookies

This month, Zack and I got to hang out with our best buddies RJay and Bhaba! We made and decorated sugar cookies! They were beautiful and absolutely delicious!

Additionally, Carley and I got to spend some time decorating sugar cookies with the Astins and the Reindeus! There was an entire station of frosting decorating! There were sprinkles, glitter, spray frosting, frosting of all colors, glitter frosting, and all kinds of decorations! Carley ended up having a lot of fun with the frosting and sticking it into my face. 

 As a seminary class we decided to put together a birthday surprise for our GREATEST SEMINARY TEACHER EVER! Honestly he does so much for us I can't even handle it!! We all gathered, put together an award and a card, and caroled at his door rewarding him the certificate and a special treat. 

One Sweet Date!

 So this date was definitely a.....unique date. To start off, my friends Conner, Evan, Rylee and I got together to have a date following our Saturday performance of the Nativity Pageant! (hence the white hair of Evan.....he was angel Gabriel. Also the awkward tans from Conner and I are from our dirt.) For this date, to start off we had spaghetti with a little twist. As shown in the movie Elf, we topped the spaghetti with syrup, chocolate syrup, marshmallows, m&ms, chocolate poptarts, and sprinkles. The first bite was somewhat appetizing, and then it went downhill from there and our "sweet" dinner ended up in the trash haha but it was SOOO FUN! As Buddy the Elf said in the movie Elf, the 4 main food groups are: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup. Following our dinner, we made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. I got to the point where I ended up just dumping candy onto my house and it surprisingly turned out pretty good! Lastly, we couldn't end the date without a spaghetti fight!! This date was SO MUCH FUN! I love these guys so much I can't even handle it!! It's so amazing to just have the greatest friends to hang out without the fear of feeling uncomfortable. These friends share my standards and aren't afraid to have fun and be weird with me! I love these guys and I don't know where I'd be without them!

My dinner....

Oh yeah, did I mention we didn't use forks?

My Gingerbread house

The Nativity Pageant

This year was my 6TH year doing the Nativity Pageant! For the past 4 years I've been an angel, so this year I decided to switch things up and be a townsperson! It was a lot of fun acting in a different perspective! During the pageant, I traveled throughout the town "buying" bread and fruit along with gathering water form the well. At the end of the whole performance, all the townspeople and shepherds bow down to the baby Jesus and we sing Hallelujah. This year I got to have such a wonderful time in the pageant with all of my friends!! We all just spent time together at the rehearsals, had a little potluck, and partied backstage. The entire pageant is so powerful! As I was waiting to enter onto the set, I just saw the endless number of people coming from off the streets (walking their dog) and all these people coming to see the pageant and be reminded that the reason of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ. He is the gift, and because of Him we all can return to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

Carley and I as townspeople

Conner, Carley, and I

Models. 

Rehearsing.

Laurel and I

Chilling with Angel Gabriel

The "Ghetto Inn" crew, or the "Get Inn" haha that's how we roll in Bethlahem

Carley and I matching for church!

My dad and I with our matching Christmas sweaters!

Seminary Surprise

 For seminary, our amazing seminary teacher Brother Astin surprised us with a special gift.....it only took 50 minutes to unwrap!! Once we got through the initial boxes, we were shocked when we saw a massive ball of plastic wrap. We each took turns unwrapping the gift. Someone would roll a dice until doubles are rolled, then we'd pass off the gift and take turns unwrapping. As we unwrapped plastic wrap, gift wrap, bubble wrap, and packing tape, candy, chapstick, and little treats until we reached the core. It was so fun to find all the treats along the way! I love my seminary class!!!

The massive gift ball. Did I mention we had to initially use oven mittens to unwrap the box?

Bowling with my friends Drew and Trey!

 Zack and I went to a Best Buddies Special Olympic Christmas Party at a bowling alley! We got pictures with Santa, we bowled, and we celebrated with pizza and treats! I love these guys!

 Christmas Day

This year Christmas was absolutely AMAZING! I got to finally see Brooke's face after 8 MONTHS!! We got to skype Hermana Olsen in Nicaragua!! So our day started off bright and early. We all walked down the stairs, my dad never failed to say his annual line, "Santa missed us this year". Christmas is never the same without that quote! So we all saw what we got in our stockings and then opened up presents! Afterwards, we had cinnamon rolls, skyped Brooke for 2 HOURS, had french toast casserole for dinner with the missionaries, and then had a family movie night!! For Christmas I got a lot of comfy clothes, a hello kitty puzzle from Zack, some perfume from Brooke, some headbands from Carley, and lots of other wonderful gifts like a sign from my friend Nova. This Christmas was so fun to just spend time with all of my family and not worry about school and other things. I love my family and I am so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ and everything He has done for us. He is our Savior, He died for us and atoned for our sins. He is our brother and He suffered so that we can all live again eternally with our families. Christmas is about our Savior Jesus Christ and I was able to celebrate this holiday with my eternal family and I could not asked for anything more magical. 

Waiting to see what Santa got us at 6am!

Carley and I with our "Big Sis" and "Little Sis" necklaces

SKYPING HERMANA OLSEN

Family photo

Feliz Navidad de Leon Nicaragua

Making our own Cold Stone ice cream!!

 Before and after with Santa

Annual pajama picture by the Christmas tree

My presents!

 The elves visited us for the 12 days of Christmas! Each day they left us a little treat and a message. We got 7 Up on the 7th day of Christmas, popcorn, peeps, socks, and many other treats. In addition we celebrated the 12 days of Christmas by picking a family in our neighborhood to drop off a gift for each day. We ding dong ditched the gift and it was thrilling to see their joy as they received the daily gifts from the secret Santa. I love Christmas and basking in all the joy of the giving season!!

My mom and I making sugar cookies

Eating out at Longhorn from our gift from Ginger

Spent Christmas Eve having a Hobbit movie marathon and counting up all of my Hayward's tip coins! And yes.....it took a very long time, and a lot of coin slot holders. Let's just say I counted about $517.....and that's not including the pennies!

Just playing Zombie with Nerf Guns in the church

I went on an ice skating date with Trey, Morgan, and Drew!!

Boston Trip!

December 30 was our 4TH ANNUAL BOSTON TRIP AT CHRISTMASTIME!!! This time, we switched it up and had a picture scavenger hunt! It was fun at the beginning but then eventually we kinda gave up haha but the few pictures we got were super fun! So we all gathered at Quincy Market, got our picture by the tree, and then split off and took pictures around Boston! We hung out with ducks, we made grass angels, we saw ice sculptures, we froze our fingers off, and we just had an adventure walking around Boston together! We had about 20 people join us it was CRAZY!! Boston is just such a fun and beautiful city! I'm super excited I was able to visit it again with all my friends from the Nashua Stake!!

Our favorite drink.

The whole crew! Kylie R., Josue L., Alexander J., Rachel M., Josh N., Rylee N., Anna B., Bekah P., Hansen H., Tommy N., Rianna W., Jade R., Claudia B., Savannah P., Annie G., Sierrah P., Sam E., Alex G., and Conner P.

All fitting onto a park bench.

Our pyramid....(creative)

Chilling by the duck bridge.